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I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

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Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#91

Post by astrodust »

idProQuo wrote: post #26
bolder88 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other funny thing is that there's a violent dislike of mainstream media on websites such as Reddit, and constant criticism when news stations take things out of context. Then they do things like this themselves on a daily basis!

^People write this comment on Reddit a lot. The one I'm about to write, they also write this one too. You can't talk about Reddit as a hivemind, because it isn't one person, or even a definite collective of people. The people who take things out of context, and the people who call them out, are different sets of people. If Reddit seems to have multiple personalities, it's because... well, it does.

You can talk about Reddit as a hivemind because it is one.

Reddit can turn into an angry mob in a nanosecond, tear someone's life apart, utterly destroyed, and then a nanosecond later flip around because of the discovery of guilt and empathy, to try and repair what just happened.

It's not any one person, but the collective does have certain predictable patterns of behavior. If you're part of Reddit, you're part of that super-organism, like it or not.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#92

Post by spuz »

drcode wrote: post #76
pdenya wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you can expect this type of reaction from a performance. One of the larger issues is that people don't get that it was a performance. Roughly equivalent to taking a picture of a clown and making fun of him for his make up as if he walks around like that in every situation.

If you do some kind of guerilla performance art, going around in public doing weird stuff, then most people will probably not realize it's a performance. Expecting otherwise seems irrational.

You are correct, but that's not the issue. The issue is not that people are not able to jump to the right conclusion, it is that they jump to the wrong conclusion.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#93

Post by D9u »

I, myself, would have started, and stopped, with the last sentence:

  I prefer to let these little cesspools of cyberspace fester and then stagnate, forgotten as they should be, secure in the knowledge that I am doing something that matters to me.
As reddit is nothing other than a festering cesspool of cyberspace.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#94

Post by agentultra »

potatolicious wrote: post #7

Hipster-hate strikes me as just another thinly veiled form of bullying, and it's interesting to see how readily internet nerds - the people who are disproportionately to have been bullied in the past - engage in it. Look! He's different! Let's make assumptions about his motivations and get him! It's also interesting to see how many times Reddit (and other communities) fly into a rage-fest because of lack of context,…

This is going to sound inflammatory but I basically consider anyone younger than around 25 to be functionally insane. They're in a period in their life where they seriously believe that they cannot spend the rest of their lives with someone who doesn't have the same taste in music as they do. You're busy cultivating a sense of identity, I get it. But more often than not you grow up and find yourself in love with someone who likes everything you used to hate and you find it endearing. It's not a bad thing and I try not to treat anyone differently because of it... but young people pick on each other for these sorts of things. That's pretty insane IMO.

Update I could probably justify this comment by making a point other than, "young whipper snappers be cray, yo."

Hipster hate has been around for years. I find that it comes from young, self-conscious people posturing and picking on other people based on the way they look, the music they like, and other trivial things. It's cruel to pick on other people for something so utterly trivial. There's nothing thinly veiled about it, IMO: it's just bullying and it seems to be a phenomenon I strongly attribute to young people.

Maybe that makes me an old, ignorant, ruddy-duddy but I seriously haven't really heard someone over the age of 30 or so make snarky remarks about how so-and-so is such a hipster douchebag. They'd get funny looks and people might think, "What is this, high school!?"

I think someone should make this a youtube video. Old people picking on other old people for liking obscure bands young people have never heard of in forty years. Calling them hipsters (a term that originated in the 50s beat movement, no?).

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#95

Post by brokenparser »

kyro wrote: post #30

If everyone's public, online comments were tied to their real, physical identity, would the internet on a whole be a more pleasant place? I don't see the type of vitriolic comment threads on Facebook that I see on Reddit. What would be the long term implications of that? Is online anonymity in a public forum a right that we have?

No. Think prism to the 8th power or more. Yes!

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#96

Post by MartinCron »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #21
potatolicious wrote: post #7

Hipster-hate strikes me as just another thinly veiled form of bullying, and it's interesting to see how readily internet nerds - the people who are disproportionately to have been bullied in the past - engage in it. Look! He's different! Let's make assumptions about his motivations and get him! It's also interesting to see how many times Reddit (and other communities) fly into a rage-fest because of lack of context,…

On top of it, geek culture is a hipster culture. Oh you listen to obscure geeky bands and wear comic/anime t-shirts all the time? You purposely disengage from mainstream society? You're overly critical of the status quo and only socialize with people exactly like you? Gee, that sounds like the guy you're criticizing.

A few years ago I pulled up to a four-way stop on my Vespa Granturismo at the same time that there were 3 other Vespa riders pulled up to the other three sides and I thought to myself, "wow, just look at all of the quirky individualist non-conformists!"

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#97

Post by PhasmaFelis »

philwelch wrote: post #73
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #23

Tangentially related, things like this are why I have not stopped wearing my fedora (in appropriate situations, with appropriate outfits). Dear Internet Fashionistas: You've decided that fedoras and suspenders are the mark of a horrible person. Your opinions have no connection to reality. Over here in the real world, I look good. When I come back to the bar the next day to pick up my credit card, and the bouncer reme…

Fedoras come off well with the right outfit, sure. Most fedora-wearing nerds don't get that right. If you do, more power to you.

Yeah, wearing a beat-up $10 fedora with a T-shirt and jeans is not a great fashion decision. (But note that "poor fashion decisions" does not mean "disgusting, reprehensible goblin," despite the usual fashionista hyperbole.) I have a nice, properly-fitted felt fedora that I try to keep in good shape, and I wear it with a nice button-down and slacks at a bare minimum, usually a tie and sometimes a full suit.

I've had several internet fashionistas try to tell me that fedoras (and bow ties, and suspenders, and etc.) are Ruined Forever because a few unpleasant dudes on OK Cupid wear them. I find the notion absurd.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#98

Post by hackula1 »

adambard wrote: post #82
sharkweek wrote: post #49

The front page of reddit can be a cruel mistress My wife and I had one of our wedding pictures take the number one spot on /r/all one day -- There was some rather embarrassing text super-imposed on it that said "Oh you think married women still give BJs" (google Condescending Wife to find it). Despite some of the comments in the thread being pretty mean, my wife and I took it in stride, we're both internet people, we…

I shaved half of my hair and half of my beard so that I'd have an interesting driver's license, and posted the photos on Reddit. So I can't really complain about someone else appropriating my image. But it did get big in a way I didn't expect. My mother found out when she went to yahoo.com to log into her email and I was on the front page. My father-in-law was watching the local news and saw me giving an interview. T…

Wow, I had never seen that before. That is one epic driver's license.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#99

Post by Apocryphon »

jlgreco wrote: post #57
nether wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This and the obsession with t-shirts reminds me as to why I never take fashion advice from HN.

What is the obsession with t-shirts?

T-shirt obsession is really a universal techie thing. Everything from the latest hip startup to the most stodgy of conventions give out t-shirts, often sizes far too large for most people to wear.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#100

Post by kohanz »

revelation wrote: post #17

The website she referred to had a series of essays they dubbed “It Happened To Me” that they sprinkled in amongst feminist-leaning news and features. “I want to talk about how all of this makes me feel. You, all over the Internet, right after you dumped me.” Does that seem bizarrely self absorbed to anyone else?

Aren't most people self-absorbed for a period of time, post-breakup? It may be a self-defense or healing mechanism, of sorts.
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